In an own-initiative report by rapporteur Derek Vaughan (S&D, UK), which was adopted on Tuesday 11 September (565 votes to 51 and 65 abstentions), the MEPs called for the PEACE programme and other Cohesion Policy programmes benefiting Northern Ireland to remain in place following Brexit.
“So please, colleagues, let's send a message to the European Union, to the Irish Government and, in particular, to the UK Government, that Interreg and, in particular, the PEACE Programme are so important”, the rapporteur stressed during a plenary debate the day before. “We must continue to fund them post-2020, whatever happens”, he said.
This message was supported by almost all MEPs. James Nicholson (ECR, UK) took exception to the suggestion that without these funds, the peace process would not have been possible. “To me, this is overly simplistic at best, and at worst it risks giving a potential excuse to those who seek to justify terrorism”, he warned. The Conservative MEP went on to ask who would represent Northern Ireland, given that the UK would no longer be represented at the Council, the European Commission or the European parliament.
Several MEPs sought to mollify this concern, as too did Corina Creţu, the Commissioner for Regional Policy, who stressed that there are already mechanisms in place that allow cross-border programmes to be carried out with third countries. She also stressed that the Commission had planned to continue the border programmes with the UK and proposed the continuation of the PEACE+ programme (see EUROPE 12029) during the next budgetary cycle.
Extending the PEACE programme
The MEPs also propose to repeat the experience of the PEACE programme elsewhere in Europe. For instance, Ivan Jakovčić (ALDE, Croatia) called the programme to be extended to the Balkans, referring to Kosovo and Bosnia & Herzegovina, where a change in borders is currently being studied (see EUROPE 12091).
The British EFDD and ENF delegation voted against the own-initiative report, as did some ECR members (with the rest abstaining).
The question of the Irish border is one of the major pitfalls in the negotiations between the EU and the UK (see EUROPE 12086). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)